Lithuania's blue blooms gone as flax farming ends

April 29, 2012 by Marielle Vitureau in Other Sciences / Economics & Business

Lithuania, where the delicate blue blossoms of linseed were once so abundant they became a staple of folk songs and poetry, has turned to imports as growing the plant at home has become too expensive.

Lithuania, where the delicate blue blossoms of linseed were once so abundant they became a staple of folk songs and poetry, has turned to imports as growing the plant at home has become too expensive.

Tourists strolling the streets of Lithuania's capital Vilnius will immediately notice the word "linas", the Lithuanian word for linseed or flax, posted in large letters above shop windows.

The traditional plant has also inspired a very popular first name -- Linas for men, Lina for women.

But despite being celebrated in Lithuanian folklore, pale blue linseed flowers no longer carpet meadows from spring through to early summer.

Now, fibres produced from the plants to make Lithuania's popular linen cloth must be imported, mainly from France, Italy and Belarus.

Local farmers did not plant a single hectare of flax in 2010 to be used for textile production -- a strong sector for business in the Baltic state of 3.5 million people.

Looking back with nostalgia at a time when linseed was in full bloom across 21,500 hectares some 20 years ago, local farmers and producers point a finger at the European Union as the culprit behind the decline.

"Subsidies have now fallen to 675 litas (195 euros, $257) per hectare," says Beruta Vasiliauskiene, head of Jubarko Linu Verslas, one of the last farms to have grown flax in recent years.

But the 50 hectares once sown with linseed have gradually been replaced and the farm will not plant a single seed this year.

Before the Baltic state joined the EU in 2004, public aid was almost three times higher.